Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi probes grants signed off 'in a hurry' by Labor before election

Coalition Senators have accused Labor of using multiculturalism grants to pork barrel in the lead-up to the election, with suggestions grants were signed off just hours before the government entered caretaker mode.

Coalition senators have targeted the $15 million Building Multicultural Communities Program in Senate estimates.

Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has asked departmental officials to confirm whether the grants, worth up to $170,000, may have been spent on items like coffee machines for community groups.

Officials were unable to provide details and took the questions on notice.

However, they confirmed former minister Kate Lundy signed off on the grants on August 5, the day after Kevin Rudd called the election and hours before the government went into caretaker mode, despite applications closing more than a month earlier in June.

Senator Bernardi told the hearing Senator Lundy signed off on the grants "in a great hurry" and demanded details of what was purchased with every single grant.

"It smells like a giant pork barrel to me," Mr Bernadi said.

He said he had calculated 80 per cent of the grants had been distributed to "former Labor aligned electorates" and said "it had the stench of the Ros Kelly Whiteboard sports rorts affair".

Ms Kelly resigned as sports minister in the Keating government in 1994 after questions were raised about the distribution of government grant money.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says the multicultural make-up of the electorates could be a factor in the department's final analysis of where the grants were distributed.

Labor Senator Carol Brown interrupted Senator Bernardi's questions, telling him they were a "lot of rot".

Officials told estimates they would not be able to immediately provide details of the grants because of the departmental shake-up since the election.